[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 190 (Thursday, October 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S7476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 3963. Ms. HIRONO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to 
amendment SA 3867 submitted by Mr. Reed and intended to be proposed to 
the bill H.R. 4350, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2022 
for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

        At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. ___. COLLECTION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FOR PATENT 
                   INVENTORS.

       (a) Amendment.--Chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, 
     is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``Sec. 124. Collection of demographic information for patent 
       inventors

       ``(a) Voluntary Collection.--The Director shall provide for 
     the collection of demographic information, including gender, 
     race, military or veteran status, and any other demographic 
     category that the Director determines appropriate, related to 
     each inventor listed with an application for patent, that may 
     be submitted voluntarily by that inventor.
       ``(b) Protection of Information.--The Director shall--
       ``(1) keep any information submitted under subsection (a) 
     confidential and separate from the application for patent; 
     and
       ``(2) establish appropriate procedures to ensure--
       ``(A) the confidentiality of any information submitted 
     under subsection (a); and
       ``(B) that demographic information is not made available to 
     examiners or considered in the examination of any application 
     for patent.
       ``(c) Relation to Other Laws.--
       ``(1) Freedom of information act.--Any demographic 
     information submitted under subsection (a) shall be exempt 
     from disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5.
       ``(2) Federal information policy law.--Subchapter I of 
     chapter 35 of title 44 shall not apply to the collection of 
     demographic information under subsection (a).
       ``(d) Publication of Demographic Information.--
       ``(1) Report required.--Not later than 1 year after the 
     date of enactment of this section, and not later than January 
     31 of each year thereafter, the Director shall make publicly 
     available a report that, except as provided in paragraph 
     (3)--
       ``(A) includes the total number of patent applications 
     filed during the previous year disaggregated--
       ``(i) by demographic information described in subsection 
     (a); and
       ``(ii) by technology class number, technology class title, 
     country of residence of the inventor, and State of residence 
     of the inventor in the United States;
       ``(B) includes the total number of patents issued during 
     the previous year disaggregated--
       ``(i) by demographic information described in subsection 
     (a); and
       ``(ii) by technology class number, technology class title, 
     country of residence of the inventor, and State of residence 
     of the inventor in the United States; and
       ``(C) includes a discussion of the data collection 
     methodology and summaries of the aggregate responses.
       ``(2) Data availability.--In conjunction with issuance of 
     the report under paragraph (1), the Director shall make 
     publicly available data based on the demographic information 
     collected under subsection (a) that, except as provided in 
     paragraph (3), allows the information to be cross-tabulated 
     to review subgroups.
       ``(3) Privacy.--The Director--
       ``(A) may not include personally identifying information 
     in--
       ``(i) the report made publicly available under paragraph 
     (1); or
       ``(ii) the data made publicly available under paragraph 
     (2); and
       ``(B) in making publicly available the report under 
     paragraph (1) and the data under paragraph (2), shall 
     anonymize any personally identifying information related to 
     the demographic information collected under subsection (a).
       ``(e) Biennial Report.--Not later than 2 years after the 
     date of enactment of this section, and every 2 years 
     thereafter, the Director shall submit to Congress a biennial 
     report that evaluates the data collection process under this 
     section, ease of access to the information by the public, and 
     recommendations on how to improve data collection.''.
       (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of 
     sections at the beginning of chapter 11 of title 35, United 
     States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

``124. Collection of demographic information for patent inventors.''.
                                 ______